An entry in the TFS Travel Journal
Jet lag’s a strange thing — Milton was wide awake at 7:30, Wendy hadn’t fallen asleep until 1:30 and didn’t get up until after 9:00. Just to be safe, he brought her a bowl of fresh and stewed fruit, so she didn’t miss breakfast. While she was dining en suite, Milton got a lesson in cricket from Paddy, while watching the Australia-South Africa match. Give me a break; Monty Python couldn’t make up something that funny. . .
We headed off to the Jewish museum, which is located on the edge of the beautiful park described in yesterday’s entry. The museum is housed in the old synagogue, which was built around 1865, and is adjacent to the much larger new one, which was built (in response to a large influx of Lithuanian Jews) in 1905. The museum had a small but interesting collection of ornaments and craftworks from around the world, as well as a video about the history of Jews in South Africa.
We got into a discussion with Richard Newman, the part-time curator, a South African Jew who moved in the ’60s to Israel, then moved back here several years ago. Quite the fascinating and knowledgeable man, as he’s working on a history of South African Jewry for a book and for subsequent tours. There is a substantial Jewish population here - over 100,000 in the country, and around 16,000 in Capetown - but many of them, like a lot of other whites, have recently been leaving the country. He said the U.S. was very limiting in access, Canada becoming more so, and Australia very, so many go to New Zealand, since they can then get into Australia in 3 years. He spoke with respect of Mandela, but said all his years as a political prisoner caused him to develop affinities with (as his cause was being trumpeted by) some notorious personalities, i.e., Khadafi, Arafat and Farakhan. But, Richard remarked, the chief Rabbi of South Africa is very close to Mandela and vice-versa.
Jewish issues aside, he spoke of how the government is still quite corrupt, and that with the integration of about 40 million people into much of the social system that had previously excluded them (having instead focused on about 5 million people), there is just no, or totally inadequate, money for the needed improvements to health care, education, housing, job creation, etc. (to say nothing of the Arts, which has been completely cut off, he told us from firsthand experience as he sings with the Capetown opera)
Furthermore, in response to our questions about comments we’d heard about the violence here, the issue seems to be that the country used to be a (repressive) police state - with all that that entailed, as is coming out in all the truth commission hearings - but that now that it is a freer democracy, it is much harder to control the extremists, especially with so many years of rage that have built up. Consequently, the country is experiencing a dangerous brain drain, and it is unclear whether it can be stopped.
Anyway, at that point we were interrupted by a man who said that he now lives in Israel, but used to daven at this synagogue as a child in the late ’30s, and could he and his family see it now. Richard then led a group of us into the 1905 building, which is quite stately with a beautiful carved wood pulpit (the building was designed by an English firm, as there were no jewish architects here then, so it has many Church of England features!). We heard many stories of the personalities who had been associated with the synagogue from throughout the ages, as Richard had recently been traveling and interviewing many of them, then we said our goodbyes.
We went up to the Waterfront, our home away from home (away from home), and lunched at Quay 4, enjoying some really fabulous grilled local specialties: langostines, crayfish, cape salmon and calamari. We accompanied it all with some local beers, our favorite of which was Carling Black Label lager, which is brewed here but labeled “America’s lusty and liveliest beer”.
It was then off to the nearby Two Oceans Aquarium, which had some entertaining exhibits, including seals, penguins and sharks, and especially the king and fierce crabs, some of which had bodies the size of large frisbees and leg diameters of at least 4 feet.
We walked over to the Imax theater, where we experienced “Serengeti” (warming up for the real thing in two weeks) and “The Grand Canyon”.
We then cruised the copious mall, seeing many “Feb. 1 - End Of Summer Sale” signs and having a real laugh when we walked into Top CD, their largest chain, and heard “The Best of Bread” blasting. Evidently, the group is big here, especially after their recent tour! We then walked out onto the second floor balcony where we oversaw and listened to the Capetown Philharmonic performing classical favorites at the outdoor amphitheatre, with a thick strip of sunlit clouds shrouding the top of Table Mountain in the background. After enjoying several selections, we walked to Decadent Donut (which we’d discovered Friday night), and made a dinner of a few of their fantastic freshly baked and frosted creations (ahh, to be a grown-up and have donuts for dinner!). Then back to the inn with yet another couldn’t-be-nicer cab driver.